Your Typical Navy Brat
by Bearit
Summary: A series of drabbles and shorts that follows Commander Shepard before she was Commander Shepard, through middle school and high school. Spacer background. 12/16: Dizzy - In which Shepard gets drunk.
1. Braces

**Title**: Your Typical Navy Brat

**Author**: Bearit

**Summary**: Young Shepard gets braces.

--

_**Kranz Station: **_**Friday, April 10, 2167 07:37 UT**

She stood in front of the mirror in her mother's apartment, bared her teeth, pursed her lips, bared her teeth again, and nearly screamed.

Of _all_ indignities she suffered, of _all_ of them, this was surely the worst.

"Lila, honey, it's time for school," her mother called.

"I'm_ not_ going."

She heard her mother sigh just outside the bathroom door. "Come on, dear, they aren't that bad. When I was your age, they were far more conspicuous than just that little wire."

"What, you mean in the twentieth century?" she snapped, imagining her mother with her normal brown hair in pigtails and wearing a contraption of a head brace. She smirked at the thought. That helped her feel a little better at least, even if she could almost hear her mother roll her eyes from the other side of the door. "Doesn't the Alliance insurance cover for the invisible stuff?"

"For their employees and their public servants only, Lila. I told you this last week. Maybe if you had stopped throwing a fit for _one second_ to listen you would have remembered this."

Lila licked her tongue over the intruding wire and glared at herself. No, not herself. At the normal brown hair of her mother, at the ears and chin and nose of her mother. She wished her father had been home instead of gallivanting around in the Skyllian Verge doing this or that. He may not have been able to stop this inevitability, but at least she wouldn't have a hideous silver wire declaring to the galaxy, _Look at me! My teeth are defective! I look like a complete _nerd_!_

She did not need that kind of blow to her reputation, not at all.

"I'm _not_ going," she repeated firmly.

"Yes, you are. And you have one minute to finish your business in there, or you are grounded."

"That's a much better punishment than this!" she yelled, but from the retreating footsteps she knew her mother was not going to respond. That was final.

Lila Shepard sighed, stared at herself in the mirror, bared her teeth, scowled, and slammed the door on her way out of the bathroom.

She slammed the door so hard, she was grounded anyway.


	2. 98

**Title**: Your Typical Navy Brat

**Author**: Bearit

**Summary**: Shepard gets her math test back.

--

_**Kranz Station: **_**Friday, April 10, 2167 08:24 UT**

The bright red number flashed on the orange light of the screen, and Lila Shepard frowned. As if the braces weren't bad enough!

A freckled face popped over her shoulder, and she quickly switched screens. "So… what did you get?" Milt Lunney asked with a toothy grin.

"That's none of your business," she snapped, realizing then that subtly curling her lips under her teeth was not exactly possible with angry retorts.

He stared at her for a long moment, and then his smiled brightened and Lila feared the worst. "How about this. I tell you my score you tell me yours?"

She sighed. Well, that was good he apparently hadn't seen them yet. "I don't care what you got, Milt, I really don't."

He didn't hear her, and he crossed his arms over his chest proudly. "Seventy-six. And I didn't even study."

Lila had no immediate response to that. "Um, congrats?"

"So, how did you do? Better? Worse?"

She rolled her eyes. "Would you mind your own business?"

"Oh." Milt cringed and pulled away from Lila slowly. "Oh, I see. That sucks. Sorry, Lila, I guess… better luck next time?"

Lila shook her head, and Milt offered a small consoling grin before their other classmates pestered him for his score. She glanced up to the front of the classroom and saw her teacher smiling at her pleasantly. She sighed. She knew it.

Ninety-eight. Top score on a math test _again_.

_Way to help the nerd image, Shepard_, she scolded herself.


	3. Second to Last

**Title**: Your Typical Navy Brat

**Author**: Bearit

**Summary**: Shepard in gym class.

--

_**Kranz Station: **_**Friday, April 10, 2167 10:06 UT**

The ceiling mimicked the blue skies of Earth, or so they've been told, and the floor was paved like the blacktops where the children of Earth played ball games and jumped and chased each other around aimlessly. Milt Lunney stood at the side of the assigned captain as he scanned the remaining students, weighing in his mind who would be the best player of the bunch, and who he liked more.

Milt did not like where this was going.

"Come on, Vance," he pleaded with the boy. "She's not _that_ bad."

The dark-haired boy beside him frowned. "Every pass she makes gets intercepted."

"But she makes the pass to the right person. Just not at the right time."

"Which makes us lose games. No." And he pointed at a skinny blonde in a pretty ponytail, who hopped to his side gleefully.

Milt glanced at the other captain, who wasted no time in picking the short boy with braces who excitedly wobbled over to his teammates. He sighed. There were only two more people left. He looked back at his friend, who pursed her lips and curled her fingers around the edge of her gym shorts while looking dead straight at Vance in what could almost pass as a glower. Milt did not know if she was angrier at Vance or the other captain for this kind of an "indignity," as she would call it, but Milt knew that she was already having a horrible day, and this was just making it worse.

"Vance, you _know_ she's worth having on the team."

Vance turned to him, exasperated, and then sighed. "She's better than the other guy, at least." He pointed to the girl with the sloppily done ponytail and the hardened stare. "Shepard."

Lila Shepard grudgingly approached her team for the period, and Milt offered her a lopsided grin.

"I tried to get you here earlier," he said.

She didn't say anything, not until the teacher blew his whistle and ordered for all the team members to take their positions. "I know," she said finally, and gave him a small smile in return. "And thanks."

He noticed the silver wire across her teeth, but the game started before he could say anything more. By lunchtime, he had completely forgotten all about it.


	4. Components

**Title**: Components**  
Author**: Bearit**  
Summary**: In which Shepard is bored and gets in trouble because of it.

* * *

_**Kranz Station: **_**Wednesday, April 15, 2167 16:48 UT**

She stared at the clock, back at the mess on the living room floor, and let the fear settle in. Her mother would be home from work soon, less than half an hour, she figured, and she would not be pleased to see her beloved old vid-player in disarray into all its minute components across the carpet. This was not good.

_It's her own fault_, Lila tried to tell herself, _if she hadn't grounded me, I could be at the Youth Center right now beating the crap out of Milt's army instead of… this!_

But she knew exactly how her mother would throw that back in her face: she should find more hobbies than playing network games or tearing apart electronics, she should have been doing her homework, she could have been doing her chores or this or that and it was not necessary for her to disassemble something she had no right to be touching. Especially if she could not figure out how to put it back together.

Lila snorted. Yeah, right. She bet she could figure it out. She had before, back on the SSV Pikes Peak, when her mother's subordinates were pointing out which components did what and why. Never mind that they were outdated pistols and old computer consoles from the ground vehicles. An old vid-player was not any variation of Prothean technology, and so should be a million times easier to figure out on her own!

She sat down and began to work, beginning with the silver husk of the box and working with each computer chip and resistor and transistor and lasers, racking her brain for where they had gone before and murmuring to herself their function and trying to place everything perfectly in the logical order—

The door behind her slid open, and Lila slowly turned around to see her mother in the doorway with an expression she knew all too well.

Yup. She was grounded for yet another week. Go figure.


	5. Braids

**Title**: Braids**  
Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: Shepard at Halloween

* * *

_**Kranz Station: **_**Friday, October 30, 2167 15:35 UT**

She scowled at her image in the mirror and tugged at the braided pigtails just hard enough to know that this was real. This was happening. And Milt and the others were waiting for her outside, because the costumes just weren't complete without her, and she couldn't pretend to be adjusting the blue plaid ribbons forever.

Braided. Pigtails.

She already had to endure an entire day of the other girls cooing at how "cute" the style was, after spending the entire morning dealing with her mother giddy that she had not been able to do her only daughter's hair since she was in preschool, when her father was serving in the Armstrong Nebula, and wouldn't it be nice if her hair was done like this more often?

As if pigtails weren't bad enough, they had to be braided, too. Why on earth did they have to be _braided_? The actress did not have braids in the ancient vid!

She tugged at the dress. Nobody wore dresses like this anymore, not since, oh, what, the nineteenth century? Nineteenth! _But that's the point_, Milt had said, _and nobody dresses up like a scarecrow anymore, either._

And her shoes, oh her shoes. Wasn't glitter out of style anymore?

"Hey, Dorothy!" called a boy's voice from the other side of the door. "You're not going to spend the entire party in the girl's restroom, are you?"

And Lila Shepard sighed, grabbed the basket with the toy dog from the sink, and joined her friends in the Youth Center for yet another embarrassing Halloween.


	6. Desk Job

**Title**: Desk Job  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: In which Hannah Shepard remembers why she took a desk job over being an XO

* * *

_**Kranz Station:**_ **Wednesday, February 3, 2168 17:16 UT**

Lieutenant Commander Hannah Shepard really had quite enough of this job. When she enlisted, she never dreamed for one second that she would ever had the displeasure of being stuck behind a desk keeping track of fleets throughout the galaxy, enduring the politics of Citadel space while trying to keep the politics of the Alliance in order, and so on and so forth. Every time a distress call wound up on her desk she wished she could just board a ship and _go_, but, no, she had to forward the distress call to this admiral or that commander and was otherwise stuck on Kranz Station.

She volunteered to take this job, she knew it. She gave up being XO aboard the SSV Pikes Peak for this. Hannah, for the life of her, could not remember why.

The door to her apartment slid open, and immediately she was greeted with two young voices screaming at each other:

"Haha! Sucker! Fear me and my battle prowess!"

"Who _says_ that? Gah… damn it…"

Hannah walked into the living room and saw her daughter and her friend sitting on the couch with a mess of snacks strewn across the floor and coffee table and the bright blue screen of the new vid-player illuminating their faces. Lila stuck her tongue out victoriously at Milt Lunney, who pouted, grabbed the handheld controller he had thrown down, and demanded a rematch.

_That's why…_

And Hannah Shepard smiled.


	7. Countdown

**Title**: Countdown  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: Young Shepard is very eager to go home.

* * *

_**Kranz Station:**_** Friday, March 25, 2168 14:58 UT**

The teacher looked ready to throw one of the big, thick textbooks on his desk as the students shuffled their books and data pads into their backpacks, giving little regard to the homework being assigned for the weekend. Lila had already slipped her stuff away earlier and could almost scream at the rest of her classmates: if they were going to put away their notes, they needed to do it more quietly! Now the bell was going to ring in two minutes, and he was going to hold them over late, lecture them, go over the homework assignment _again_, and they would never leave.

14:59.

The teacher stopped talking, crossed his arms, and stared at the students. _Great_. Some of the others realized this and sheepishly took out their notes, and slowly the doom permeated the room and everyone stopped fidgeting.

"Well, now that I have your attention," the teacher said slowly and dangerously, "let me go over the assignment one more time, in case you didn't hear it."

15:00. The bell rang.

Lila sighed. _Crap_, and she listened as the teacher assigned them one more chapter and a promise of a reading quiz on Monday before finally releasing them.

15:03. Lila cursed her teacher and her classmates under her breath as she quickly hopped out of her seat and out the door. She waved goodbye to Milt, she'll see him on Monday and don't go destroying his virtual army without her, and she picked up a sprint as she dashed home, smiling and forgetting her jerk of a teacher and the extra homework she had now.

The door to the apartment was unlocked, and she could already smell the tomato sauce and meatballs from just outside the door. Her grin grew wider.

She rushed inside and into the kitchen, where her father stood over the stove with a silly, frilly apron over his uniform and a goofy grin on his face.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," he said, and she ran into his arms.

Her father taking shore leave was always her favorite part of birthdays.


	8. Courses

**Title**: Courses  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: It's time to choose classes for high school…

* * *

_**Kranz Station: **_**Thursday, May 5, 2168 10:01 UT**

The classroom was bustling with students excitedly scrolling through the course selection screen and coordinating with their friends about what classes to sign up for and raising their hands to get the counselor's attention to see what classes she'd recommend they sign up for. Milt stared at the graduation requirements and stared at the screen and he could not believe how many options he had. At least three history classes, and at least one had to be Earth-specific, and another had to be galactic-specific, and the third could be _whatever he wanted_. That was just _one_ example of the many different choices he had!

He leaned over to Lila. "Hey, so what history class should we take? I was thinking about getting the Earth-stuff out of the way first…"

Lila shrugged. "Do whatever you want, Milt."

Milt frowned for a moment, and then let a small smile creep on his face. "What, are you saying you don't want to be any classes with me in high school?" He laughed. "Come on, I'm not _that_ bad, am I?"

That's when he noticed that her computer screen did not have the course selection screen but instead her email inbox, with a game screen not-so-clandestinely hidden beneath it.

"Uh, Lila, are you already done?"

Lila shook her head. "Didn't even bother to look." He frowned, but before he could say anything she turned to him with a small smile. "See, the thing is, it's not that I don't want to be any classes with you in high school. If I had it my way, we totally would. But it'd be pretty difficult to when I'm going to be living on Lovell Station, don't you think?"


	9. Braces, redux

**Title**: Braces, redux  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: Shepard finally gets her braces removed and learns a little truth about boys in the process.

* * *

_**Kranz Station:**_** Wednesday, July 27, 2168 11:14 UT**

Lila couldn't stop licking her tongue over her teeth. It was so smooth, and slick, and now she could eat all the foods she missed out over the past year or two, and now she could smile toothy grins again, and she no longer had to endure her mother lamenting over how much more beautiful her school photos would be, and how much happier her father would be to see her picture, if she would just smile.

So when Milt came by the apartment to get her out to the Youth Center, Lila smiled a lot, talked a lot, and wondered how much longer it would take before Milt would notice. At the Youth Center, she asked for the snacks she could not eat before, hoping that Milt would comment that her purchases were unusual, or something.

Nothing.

She frowned, and as they took their seats in front of the computer consoles to play their favorite game, she finally just upped and said it.

"Notice anything different about me?" She smiled as sweetly as she could, and Milt just stared at her.

"Uh." His expression told her enough. He knew nothing. "Haircut?"

"No…" Lila hated guessing games, but figured he deserved at least two more shots.

"New outfit…" He paused, tilted his head, and frowned. "No, you wore that last week, I think." He hesitated and then shook his head. "Crap, Lila, I thought you hated these kinds of games. I honestly don't know."

She smiled again, and when he still didn't get it, she pointed at her teeth.

"… _oh_. No more braces!"

Lila sighed. "Are all boys this dumb?" she wondered to herself quietly.


	10. Parting Words

**Title**: Parting Words  
**Author**: Bearit**  
Summary**: Lila Shepard says goodbye to Milt Lunney on her last day at Kranz Station.

* * *

_**Kranz Station:**_** Sunday, August 14, 2168 20:43 UT**

"I can't believe you're leaving _tomorrow_."

"Yeah, well, Mom's assignment starts tomorrow. It happens. At least I won't be on another ship again."

"Where is she working?"

"The SSV… Einstein? I think? I don't remember."

"And your dad is still working on the Agincourt?"

"Yeah."

"How does that work?"

"Well, he's going to be on and off duty more often, and so I'll be living with him in his apartment on Lovell Station. He's taking a few months of leave to make sure I get settled in."

"Then why couldn't you stay here?"

"The Agincourt docks at Lovell Station. The Einstein… I don't know where the Einstein docks at. Definitely not here."

"So why aren't you with either of your parents this time?"

"Too dangerous. Or something. Don't know why that kept Mom from traveling with me on the Pikes Peak."

"… I wish you didn't have to go."

"Me neither."

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too. Keep in touch, okay?"

"Okay."


	11. Whipped

**Title**: Whipped  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: On duty, he was a formidable military man. Off duty, he doesn't stand a chance against his wife and daughter. Based off a moment in the film "Apollo 13."

* * *

_**Lovell Station:**_** Wednesday, August 17, 2168 10:47 UT**

If Staff Commander James Gene Shepard could be counted on for anything, it was to be able to accurately assess a situation and the people in them. It's what had helped him through scores of sticky situations he had encountered both in training and on the field, especially where the batarians were concerned. Through a seamless mitigation of conflict between a commanding officer and a corporal, he had even been awarded a promotion, finally outranking his wife after nearly twenty years.

Despite the many, many times he had been in difficult situations, he knew that none of them—none of them—could surpass the tension his wife and daughter brought to the table.

"Mom, I don't _want_ to."

"Don't you want to go to a good Earth university? What better way to get your foot in the door?"

"There's lots of better ways. Joining an honors program is not the end-all of whether or not a college will accept me. And who said I was going to go to college on Earth, anyway?"

"And how are you planning on getting a university to even look at your application if you don't have a single honors class on there? You're joining this program. That's the end of it."

Lila turned her attention pleadingly to her father. "Dad, I don't _have_ to, right?"

He cleared his throat. "No, of course not."

"_Jim_." Hannah shot a don't-you-dare-take-her-side-again glare at him.

"Uh, I mean, yes, yes, absolutely, you have to."

Lila pouted, crossed her arms, and slouched in her arms just as the school counselor reentered the office with the necessary paperwork. "This stinks."

Hannah would tell him later that the time Lila spent under his care when she was six living on Liebergot Station was how she ended up as spoiled as she was. James realized, when he treated her to ice cream and a sum of credits worth double her allowance, that she was absolutely correct. He responded to this epiphany with a promise to his suddenly teenage daughter to raise her allowance by five whole credits after Hannah left for her assignment. To his credit, Lila had made a good, strong case.


	12. how's it going?

**Note**: This is something different I'm trying. Grammar and spelling mistakes in this "chapter" are intentional; you'll see why. Also, I had to change the formatting a bit since this site doesn't seem to like the 'at' symbol. ^^; I would also like to take this time to say quickly: thank you for all your kind reviews! I am really happy that you guys are enjoying this.

* * *

**From**: Lila M. Shepard (lmshepard13 at lovellss . civ . pub)  
**Sent**: August 21, 2168 20:16 UT  
**To**: Milt Lunney (mwlunney at kranzss . civ . pub)  
**Subject**: how's it going?

hey, Milt, sorry I didn't email you sooner. was busy getting unpacked and signed up for classes. I should be getting back online this weekend. don't change your handle. (there's no youth center here, can you believe it? and they said lovell station was bigger than kranz, pfft.)

school starts tomorrow. big scary high school, oo. Mom tricked me, and now Dad is walking me to my first class. talk about embarrassing. and I'm not taking easy classes, thanks to Mom.

I have to go. wish you were here. it would be more bearable.

talk to you later,

- Lila


	13. Hollywood

**Title**: Hollywood  
**Author**: Bearit**  
Summary**: Shepard muses on old Hollywood vids on her first day of high school.

* * *

_**Lovell Station:**_** Monday, August 22, 2168 11:32 UT**

Lila Shepard made a beeline for the cafeteria, credits in hand, as soon as the lunch bell rang, and she remembered the old vids where the "new kid" was stared at, whispered about, and approached by the cutest boy, bullied by the most popular girl, and befriended by the odd one out because she was the only one who would talk to her. She always had it in her head that even a high school filled with brats would be the same as the old vids, because all teenagers were the same. However, she moved through the hallway undetected, almost disappointed that old Hollywood disenchanted her again.

It was only typical of the life of a military brat anyway.

After she bought her lunch of soggy pizza with who knows what topping, dripping pineapple, and what, she guessed, was supposed to be green beans, she took her tray and scanned the cafeteria. Full already. Of course, the big mean seniors had their classrooms closest to the cafeteria. Naturally they'd be here first with their pick of tables, the juniors and sophomores close behind them. Lila sighed. Well, there was no harm in _asking_…

"You can sit here if you want," a voice piped up from right next to her. She nearly jumped, and she met the pretty blue eyes of a girl who had to be her age, or maybe a sophomore. She smiled pleasantly, her hair in many different colored pigtails, and her fingernails painted in varying shades of black and purple. Lila saw one open chair, and a group of others surrounding the table with styles similar to this girl.

"Uh…"

"It's no problem," the girl promised, and Lila pursed her lips. No, that wasn't it, but… she glanced quickly around the cafeteria, and saw that she had little other choice in the matter. She shrugged, and took a seat next to the girl, who immediately introduced herself and asked Lila a barrage of questions.

Well, Hollywood got _one_ thing right about high school. The odd ones out were the quickest to befriend.

Good God, she wished Milt was here.


	14. Mistletoeing

**Title**: Mistletoeing  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: It's the most wonderful time of the year.

**Disclaimer**: Mass Effect and its characters and settings are not mine, and are the property of Bioware and Microsoft. Also, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" belongs to Eddie Pola and George Wyle and Columbia Records, and Andy Williams is his own man.

* * *

_**Lovell Station**_**: Saturday, December 24, 2168 18:46 UT**

The boisterous, crisp tenor of Andy Williams echoed through the apartment, muffling out the less harmonious baritone of her father, slurring along to the words as he pushed sheets of sugar cookies and gingerbread into the oven. Her mother sipped a glass of bubbly white champagne as she watched the festivities of Earth on the monitor, her annoyed sighs masking the small smile that lifted her face. Lila paused the game on her handheld console—it was a role-playing game that Geri Kerwin had brought her earlier that afternoon with her normal pigtails in an unusual alternating red and green—and she watched.

"_There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories from Christmases long, long ago,_" her father sang as he danced into the living room, his candy cane apron looking absolutely silly as he extended a hand towards her mother, a cheesy grin upon his face.

"No, Jim," she said sternly, but he would have none of that, and he grabbed her hand and pulled her off the couch. Lila was surprised her mother had managed not to spill a single drop. She wondered if that was because of her military training.

"_It's the most wonderful time of the year_," he continued as he spun her around the room, her mother wide-eyed and glued to the champagne class. Lila suppressed a snicker. "_There'll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing_—" He continued to spin towards Lila, and she could not think to get away fast enough as he used one arm to pick her up while keeping a hold on her mother. "—_when loved ones are near!_"

And the Shepard family danced and laughed into the night, Hannah forgetting to usher Lila to her room when ten o'clock came and went, and Jim brilliantly burning the cookies into blackened crisps. "Santa won't mind, right?"


	15. Re: happy vday!

**Note**: Like the 12th installment, all grammar and spelling mistakes here are intentional. It's another email exchange. If this bothers you, I promise that this is the last email that Milt (and Shepard) will not capitalize, and their grammar starts to improve ten-fold in their exchanges. Enjoy!

For timeline purposes, Shepard is fourteen years old and a freshman in high school. This is about fifteen years before the start of the game.

* * *

**From**: Milt Lunney (mwlunney at kranzss dot civ dot pub)  
**Sent**: February 15, 2169 17:02 UT  
**To**: Lila M. Shepard (lmshepard13 at lovellss dot civ dot pub)  
**Subject**: Re: happy v-day!

aw, lila, no need to be so bitter. you did get candy, right? it sucks that homeroom teachers don't let us pass around valentine's to all our classmates, but some girls did it anyway. i know you wouldn't, but from what you told me about geri it sounds like she would be one of those girls, so you probably got *something*. i never thought i'd hear of an alternative girl getting into commercialized holidays! i think i'll see if my parents will let me go visit you over the summer so i can meet her.

talk to you later,

milt


	16. Infinite Series

**Title**: Infinite Series  
**Author**: Bearit**  
Summary**: Shepard in history class. Fifteen years old, sophomore in high school.

* * *

_**Lovell Station**_**: Thursday, September 21, 2169 14:36 UT**

Lila twirled her pen through her fingers and bit her lip, pushing aside all thoughts of hatred for the subject and putting her mind through the logical steps towards solving the problem. _The sum of k equals 1 to infinity of k-squared plus one divided by three to the k-th power is… convergent?_ Her notes for this was in her backpack, and she knew she better make sure the teacher's back was turned before reaching for it.

She looked up, only to see her pale-faced history teacher leering over her. _Crap_.

"Miss Shepard," he sneered, "would you like to tell me _another_ nation that was instrumental in the drafting of the Systems Alliance Charter?"

Lila froze, and from the corner of her eye she saw Geri mouthing an answer to her, and she forced herself not to turn her attention to her. Two syllables, was it? Well, that narrowed it down quite a bit, she thought bitterly. She combed through her memory—she was pretty certain that the United States was the first answer anybody said (and it wasn't two syllables anyway), and China the second.

The teacher smirked. "I am so very sorry to distract you from your math homework—"

"Um," she started. She knew that look. He was rather fond of his obviously rehearsed tirades, after all, and more than she did not want to subject the class to it she did not want to be the victim of it. Two syllables? "Britain?"

She winced. Britain was too obvious. She should have said Russia, or Japan. Or Canada, if it wasn't three syllables.

"Britain? Britain!" the teacher bellowed. "Britain is… correct." And he scowled and spun on his foot towards the white board, with the rest of the class behind him muffling their snickers.

Lila turned to Geri, who winked and gave a clandestine thumbs-up. She sighed and smiled appreciatively, only to snap her attention back to the front of the classroom when the teacher slammed his fist against the white board and angrily lectured about the United Kingdom's contribution to the Systems Alliance Charter.


	17. Pretty Boy

**Title**: Pretty Boy  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: Shepard explores paragon and renegade options in the lunch line. And then she is interrupted.

* * *

_**Lovell Station**_**: Tuesday, September 26, 2169 11:34 UT**

She glared daggers into the backs of the upperclassmen waving their friends over, and she guessed that Geri would finish eating lunch before she even reached the front of the line. She fought with the idea of saying something to them and she fought with the idea of punching them in the face; she crossed her arms and debated which would be the more effective option. They would not listen if she said something—she was just a sophomore, after all—and she would be without lunch if she punched them. Snitching to the cooks would do her no good either, but she hated the idea of standing by and doing nothing.

She glanced in the direction of the table she and Geri and their other friends claimed as their own, and she wondered what it must be like to have a stay-at-home mother making freshly cut sandwiches from ingredients too fresh to be from the station commissary. If she did not sleep in until the last five minutes before needing to run out the door to school, she wondered if she could dare make her own lunch so she would not have to spend half her lunch in a line that never shrunk because of selfish, stuck-up seniors and juniors.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and she turned to see a blonde-haired boy with high eyebrows and an ecstatic smile. She vaguely noted that he was not bad to look at. "You're the one who showed up Lousma the other day!" the boy exclaimed.

"Er," she started hesitantly, "I guess?"

He laughed. "That was absolutely brilliant! Seriously, you made my day with that."

She lifted a corner of her mouth. "Thanks," she said. "And you are…?"

"New," he said. "My mother just got stationed here two weeks ago. Jack Mattingly." He extended his hand to her, and she grabbed it. Firm, strong hands, she noticed, and then she wondered why she noticed.

"Lila Shepard."

The wait through the lunch line became a lot shorter then, and Lila wondered why she was surprised when the boy followed her to the table with Geri and the others. As her luck would have it, though, everybody was completely welcoming towards the new pretty boy of Lovell Station.


	18. Term Project

**Title**: Term Project  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: Shepard faces the consequences of "Infinite Series"

* * *

_**Lovell Station**_**: Monday, October 2, 2169 14:06 UT**

"And now for your term paper assignments," Lousma declared, his pale face grim with the maniacal glee that the entire sophomore honors class was convinced he thrived on. "Each of you will write about an astronaut from the twentieth century, and discuss his contributions to the dawn of human exploration in space. And _no_—" He shot a glare at one of the students who had shot up his hand. "—none of you will get Neil Armstrong."

The student pouted as he lowered his hand. "But this is the two hundredth anniversary of his famous moonwalk," he protested. "Everyone's talking about it. It makes sense."

"That is precisely why: no."

Another student raised her hand, and Lousma sighed and nodded to her. "Can we choose? I was born on Borman Station so I'm interested in him."

Lousma grinned. "You know of Frank Borman? What precisely do you know?"

"Well, he was one of the first three men to orbit Luna on Apollo… 8?"

"Excellent! You are assigned Colonel Frank Borman." He scanned the room, and his smile curled into something vicious as his eyes landed on Lila. "Miss Shepard, do you have any preference for this assignment?"

Lila pursed her lips. Ever since the incident two weeks ago, Lousma seemed to have it in for her, and she had since stuffed her math homework away during his class. That's not to say she didn't sneak out her chemistry homework from time to time, though. Jack Mattingly's joking whisper of, "It's a trap!" from behind her was a severe understatement.

"Not really," she answered truthfully. Then her mouth got the better of her. "I was born on the _SSV Elbert_."

The class snickered and chatted their own witty remarks to each other in hushed whispers. Lousma narrowed his eyes. "Miss Shepard," he began as he placed his hands on her desk and leaned forward, "I have every reason to give you one of the most obscure astronauts in the history of mankind. Men and women from the Space Shuttle, for instance, who are little more than a footnote in our textbooks. But I won't do that."

Lila stole a quick glance at Geri, who tightened her jaw and shrugged. She briefly wondered what she had gotten herself into.

"Miss Shepard, you are assigned the namesake of the space station we are currently living on. Maybe then you'll gain some appreciation for the history of human spaceflight."

Lila frowned and turned to Geri. "Who?"


	19. Saturday

**Title**: Saturday  
**Author**: Bearit  
**Summary**: Shepard's plans for Saturday gets thwarted.

* * *

_**Lovell Station**_**: Friday, December 1, 2169 15:03 UT**

Geri was sick today, and so Lila walked out of the school wing, bag in hand, deciding that if any weekend was good to catch up on the new strategy game she bought over fall break, it would be this weekend. She had not had the chance to between Lousma's pop quizzes and Geri's dragging her around the station.

She did not go much farther than around the corner when she heard Jack Mattingly's voice calling to her. She sighed and she turned to him. "What?" she asked.

He smiled. "What are you doing this weekend?"

She groaned. Not again. "Busy," she said, and she spun on her heel to continue to her father's apartment.

He ran in front of her, his smile transformed into a wicked smirk. "You say that every week, but don't forget I ran into you at the arcade the other day. That's hardly busy. Geri's sick, so, I was thinking…"

"No, Jack."

Jack pouted. "Well, why not? One date never killed anybody."

Lila decided that it was better not to point out that horror vids thrived on that kind of scenario. "One date kills friendships."

"Aw, I'm your friend?" Lila glared at him. "We'll be fine. I'll pick you up at seven, okay? Uh, Mr. Shepard isn't the type to shoot boys in the face, is he?"

"It's _Staff Commander_ Shepard, actually." Lila almost laughed as Jack tensed and his eyes widened.

"… okay, then. I'll meet you at the theater, then. Seven o'clock. Don't be late!" He washed away his panicked demeanor with an overeager smile and rounded the corner before Lila could let sink in what she had just allowed to happen.

He was long gone down the corridor before Lila could call to him. Well, there went her Saturday night.


	20. long time no talk!

**Note**: Like previous email chapters, all grammar and spelling mistakes here are intentional. It's another email exchange. It's minimal this time compared to others.

For timeline purposes, Shepard is fifteen years old and a sophomore in high school.

* * *

**From**: Lila M. Shepard (lmshepard13 at lovellss dot civ dot pub)  
**Sent**: January 17, 2170 21:54 UT  
**To**: Milt Lunney (mwlunney at kranzss dot civ dot pub)  
**Subject**: long time no talk! (sorry)

Hey, Milt, sorry I haven't emailed you in a while. The honors program is easy, but they give us so much busy work that it's hard to make time for even Geri and Jack. How have you been?

I really hope your kidding about Vance's parents transferring here. He made my life a living hell back at Kranz, and I don't want to go through all that again at Lovell.

Anyway, just thought I'd drop you a message. Nothing much is going on here, really.

Hope things are going good for you. and before I forget: Happy Birthday!

- Lila


	21. Beginning of Her Odyssey

_**Lovell Station**_**: Thursday, April 12, 2170 13:58 UT**

Geri Kerwin drummed her fingers on her desk as she watched the clock. Two minutes. There was no way—Lila was going to be late, and Mr. Lousma would justify giving her a bad grade in the class with that alone. Not that he needed anymore fuel than Lila's inattentiveness to the subject, anyway.

A minute passed, and Lila came flying through the door and threw her bag to the ground, panting. Geri smiled. "Finally," she said, and Lila raised a hand in greeting. "Why is it always _this_ class you're late to? You know Mr. Lousma doesn't like you."

Lila shrugged. "Long line in the girls' bathroom."

"That's a lie."

"A lie that no man will argue against, and I haven't used it yet."

"But you still haven't answered my question."

"Does it matter, Geri? I'm on time. Barely," Lila conceded with a half-smile. "Anyway, I hear we're getting our essays back today, on the astronauts? After the tragedy of the Calc exam, I'm not sure if I'm ready to take another ego hit today."

Geri stared incredulously at her. "You're late because you thought about ditching?" Not that Geri really could say anything. Where Lila's worst subject was history, Geri's was math, and more often than not Lila would have to send her quick messages warning her of a pop quiz she was going to miss if she did not get to class _now_. And at least Lila's record was otherwise perfect; she had this weird sense of pride in never having a single absence on her attendance record, not even when sick.

Lila sighed. "Yeah… researching my astronaut was not easy. Even though he does have an old vid about his last mission, and a book he wrote about it. Better than most of the others." She paused. "He did have an incredible career though."

Geri grinned. "So you're done complaining about not getting Alan Shepard?"

Lila threw her hands in the air. "Well, if the girl who was born on Borman Station got Borman, you would think I would have been assigned Shepard."

Geri laughed. "That's a no, then."

The bell rung, and the rest of their classmates hurried to their seats, with Jack Mattingly barely beating Mr. Lousma into the room and hopping to his desk with the teacher glowering after him. In a rare turn of events he let the students continue to converse as he punched in some numbers into the console, and Geri saw her essay, unmarked, staring at her on her screen. Mr. Lousma slammed his fist into the whiteboard at the front, and the students simmered, and Lila turned away from conversation with Jack with a final, 'I'll talk to you after class' smile that Geri had gotten used to seeing the past four months.

"Your essays have been graded, and in a few minutes I will show you your scores," Mr. Lousma said loudly after a final narrowed eye shot at an oblivious student in the back corner. "Most of them were mediocre at best. What, was an entire school year not enough time for sufficient research?"

Lila cringed in her seat and slumped over her desk, and Geri offered her a sympathetic smile. Lila, like most of the rest of their classmates, had put off the essay until the weekend before it was due, and had exiled herself and quickly learned to like coffee those two and a half days. Geri had fared better and had started two weeks beforehand instead, and sure enough, Mr. Lousma showed Geri her score first.

"Congratulations, Miss Kerwin, for getting the high score again," he said with an unusual smile. "To be fair, though, to this day we still celebrate Polkovnik Gagarin's achievements annually at Yuri's Night, which I expect all of you to attend in the school's gymnasium tonight?"

Geri glanced at the little calendar in the corner of her computer screen and wondered if Mr. Lousma was doing this on purpose. The next words out of his mouth confirmed it. "Since Miss Kerwin's essay is so stellar, I will ask that today she recite it to the class."

And by 'ask,' Geri knew, he meant 'order.' Lila smiled at her, and she couldn't tell if it a smile of congratulations, or of pity.

"And Miss Shepard," Mr. Lousma continued, "would you care to discuss the significance of tomorrow's date, as it relates to Captain James Lovell?"

"Uh… sir?" Lila started hesitantly.

"Well, in a surprising turn of events," said Mr. Lousma begrudgingly, "you have the second highest score on this assignment. I want to see if it was a fluke that your essay was so well-written, and if you've earned it."

Lila glanced at Geri quickly, who shook off her elated surprise and nodded for her to continue. The essay had been due three weeks ago—surely she could not have forgotten everything already!

Lila sighed. "Well, tomorrow is April 13? That was the day of the oxygen tank explosion that crippled the Apollo 13 spacecraft, which Lovell was the commander of. But my essay focused on his contributions to the Apollo 8 mission—"

"And as such," Mr. Lousma interrupted, "tomorrow night at the community center, there will be a showing of the old vid about the ill-fated mission, which, again, I expect _all_ of you to attend. It is the two-hundredth anniversary, after all, of the ingenious engineers and technicians who showed that anything is possible despite the odds." He turned back to Lila, whose face had turned into one of confused curiosity.

"Miss Shepard," he continued, "I wish you had spent a little bit more time on the Apollo 13 mission in your report, but I suppose that is not what I had asked for in the assignment. My own personal successful failure." He grinned. "Your essay impressed me with your interpretations of his leadership qualities. I suspect that you have some of those traits inherit within yourself. If so, I expect great things of you one day, Miss Shepard."

He turned back to his console and quickly typed in the codes to display everyone else's grades, and Lila sat still in shock. Geri, too, was unsure of what to say, or how to feel.

"What the hell just happened?"


	22. Second to First

**Notes**: Consider this a sequel-drabble to Chapter Three: Second to Last. Shepard finally proves to be a very valuable teammate...

* * *

_**Lovell Station**_**: Tuesday, August 21, 2170 13:16 UT**

She didn't know it, but he had watched her play the past couple of weeks, when her boyfriend dragged her onto the court and her girl friend giggled at her misfortune. He had watched her play the same game she had on Kranz, where she would never shoot for the points herself, but attempt to give someone else the glory by passing the ball to the one who would be the ideal candidate to do it flawlessly. She had horrible timing then; now, she bided her time, and she was almost graceful as she maneuvered through her opponents, taking advantage of the weaknesses they didn't even know they had.

So when the gym teacher called on him to be the team captain for the class, Vance took one long look at her, who glared at him with a haughty pout, expecting his choices to be no different than back at Kranz Station.

Vance grinned. Good old Milt Lunney had been right about her all along.

"Shepard," he called, and she froze in momentary shock. She glanced around, and her multi-colored haired friend nudged her forward with a laugh.

She joined Vance's side and he grinned as her gaze never left him as he picked the rest of their teammates.

Sure enough, their team dominated the other, thanks to Lila Shepard's keen eye and brilliant knack for strategy.


	23. Dizzy

_**Lovell Station**_**: Friday, September 14, 2170 23:56 UT**

She should not have stood up.

She squinted her eyes—that really didn't help her vision much—and she tried to take slow steps out the apartment door, but one foot in front of the other was much, much harder in practice, and she felt strong hands wrap around her, steadying her, and a low, soft chuckle in her ear.

"Shepard, I believe you've had more than you can handle," Jack chided gently, jokingly. She grunted in response. And she thought she'd be cleverer drunk. "Come on, let's get you home before your father kills me."

Lila heard a chorus of farewells over the loud boom of the bass behind her, and she lifted a hand in response. She had wanted to say a more personal goodbye to the host, but Vance was constantly surrounded by swooning girls and high-fiving boys, and besides, Jack was not going to let her stray from the path from the Haise apartment to the Shepard apartment. His firm grip told her as much.

Her eyelids dropped, and she leaned into his warm body. Jack groaned. "Lila, babe, I'm going to need you to help me out here a little bit."

"Mmmf," she murmured, "then be a man and carry me."

"Oh, don't be such a baby," he said, and he stopped and pushed her off of him, holding her steady with outstretched arms and firm hands on her shoulders. She forced her eyes open. "Man, you're such a lousy drunk."

"M'not that drunk."

"No one likes a liar, Shepard."

Lila laughed softly. "You do."

Jack lifted a corner of his mouth. "Yeah, I guess I do," he said. A strange look subtly crossed his face then, and if she had been sober Lila was convinced she might have been able to figure out what it was. He shook his head, and he pulled his head back, and Lila realized that he had been in debate with himself, and that his head had won over his body. "Let's get you home. It's past midnight. Your dad is going to be pissed."


End file.
